001all right good evening thank you to everyone for coming to the June 12th regular meeting of the treasure Bernice Town School Board we will start as usual with a salute to the flag okay so thank you again and thank you to our online guests who are um viewing the via the live stream regular school board meetings our business meetings that are open to the public during which we provide several opportunities for public comment um from in-person participants for those viewing the live stream comments may also be shared with the board at any time via email at Schoolboard tesd.net but those will not be read aloud during the meeting agendas are particular typically posted to the website several days ahead and we consider any comments that are sent ahead of the meeting so that those who
002wish to comment for future meetings that's the best way to communicate with us if you can't be in here in person so for the in-person participants the first comment period is reserved for additional announced agenda items and items on the consent agenda only we don't have any announced additional agenda items this evening so it will just be the consent agenda then comments will be received after each item listed under the priority discussion section and there's a final comment near the end of the meeting that's reserved for all other matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or maybe before the tesd board of directors and which are not covered by the other comment periods each public comment period is reserved for residents and taxpayers additionally the board will accept comments from sitting up public
003officials for non-campaing purposes and by agreement with the tea the board will accept comments from the union president all comments should be directed to the board as a whole or to the presiding officer myself and no comments should be directed to individual board members all comments and public all public comments and responses should be in the spirit of civil public discourse and Please be aware that intentionally disrupting a lawful meaning is a criminal offense in Pennsylvania but we don't anticipate any of that we appreciate you coming and having this chance to hear from the community in person and we appreciate your cooperation in advance so the first item on the agenda would normally be represent reports from student representatives and they are not here this evening they're done with their their year so next would
004be no item three student and staff highlights tonight is recognition of the 22 22 2023 retirees the board would like to recognize the retiring employees at the tradition East Town School District for their years of faithful service to the district and the young people of the community Dr gusick Vice President cantorsick and I will recognize the retirees and Dr Oscar Torres will read their names when you hear your name if you can come forward and greet our word president vice president and superintendent [Music] the total number of years of these employees served our school Community is 225 years at an earlier Gathering retirees with at least 10 years of service received an engraved Golden Apple including their names and years of service Senator Carolyn kamida also provided a congratulations for the retired employees with 25
005or more years in public service on behalf of the Senate of Pennsylvania the retirees are William gingham Conestoga High School 44 years Joan Corson Valley Forge Middle School 26 years Amy Barnes Elliott t e Middle School 31 years Frederick Gordon tradition East Town Administration office 34 years Cindy Hyatt Conestoga High School 17 years Tim Liggett the third Conestoga High School 26 years Jessica lavgren Beaumont Elementary School eight years Kim Rose Beaumont Elementary School 15 years Lisa Tolen Beaumont Elementary School 24 years congratulations [Applause] all right so thank you so much to all of our retirees for all their service we had the pleasure of meeting them just before this at a reception and hearing about all of their contributions and we are very grateful to have um such wonderful staff members and we wish them
006all the best in their future endeavors all right so right now we'll take a little pause to allow uh people to head out and then we'll resume the meeting all righty uh we're moving on to our next item on the agenda which would uh be announcement of additional agenda items but there are none this evening so we'll move on to public participants public participation for district residents and taxpayers regarding items on the consent agenda if you would like to make a comment on the consent agenda please come forward and line up um we'll end comment with the last person in line by board policy all comments this evening will be limited to three minutes and again this comment period is limited to the consent agenda only um which is in the uh starts on about
007page seven in the printed materials to help with timing when if you do make a comment this evening during any of the comment periods please make your entire comment and then the board will determine an appropriate response so if you'll ask all the questions and then we can deal we can provide a response all at once it makes it simpler okay are there any comments on the consent agenda all right uh seeing none our next item is the consent agenda itself although board action is required it's generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items with the consent of all members they are therefore grouped and approval is given in one Motion in the event that a board member wants to discuss any item the board president will move it to an appropriate place on the
008agenda a board member may vote nay or abstain with respect to a consent agenda item without the need for removing the item from the consent agenda so the ACT an action under consideration is the board of school directors approves the following recommendations on the consent agenda as printed on page six do I have a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying aye any opposed signify by saying nay all right the motion carries nine zero all right next we have acceptance of gifts from vice president cantorsick yes thank you the board of school directors accepts with pleasure and appreciation the following donations books donated by Amy and Paul pogiuri to the donated to new Eagle Elementary School valued at six hundred dollars drawing books donated by Anne and Robert Woodcock to new Eagle
009library and art room valued at three hundred dollars and books donated by Mary Sue and Mark Mansfield to new Eagle Elementary library and classrooms valued at one hundred dollars we will get to all the gifts today so uh thank you again from the board always appreciate and are amazed by the generosity of our community a thank you note will be sent to all the folks who donated from the board secretary a note of thanks thank you all right thank you and I Echo those thanks uh let's see moving on we have our priority discussion this evening is adoption of the 2023-2024 annual budget uh the final budget tonight's um we'll have Mr McDonnell and superintendent Rich gusick will give a presentation the action under consideration is that the board of school directors adopts the following
010resolution that pertains to the approval of the 2023-2024 final budget submitted by The District's Administration the text of the resolution can be found on page 102 in the agenda materials and includes a recommended tax increase of 3.5 percent do I have a motion so moved who's the first well Stacy Mrs Stone and is there a second second thank you I will ask Dr gusick and Mr McDonald to provide further information prior to the discussion of the priority action item Dr Goosey good evening and thank you president hotinski it's my pleasure tonight to present with Mr McDonald 2023-24 School District final budget for your consideration tesd will provide services for approximately 6937 students that's today's enrollment in the coming year recent outcomes of our education and of our educational program include more National Merit semi-finalists 37
011than any school in Pennsylvania 52 commended students two national African-American Scholars for National Hispanic Scholars and one National indigenous scholar in 2022 957 Conestoga high school students took 2027 AP tests ninety percent of all students who took those tests scored a passing grade of three or higher 62 percent of all seniors who graduated in 22 participated in at least one AP test and scored a three or better and 161 students were recognized as AP Scholars two Conestoga High School robotics team placed in the world robotics competition one team finishing 11th in the world and the other finishing 12th in the world Pennsylvania Math League hosted a competition where our middle schools dominated with te Middle School placing first in the sixth and eighth grade competitions and Valley Forge Middle School placing first in the seventh
012grade competition if only our middle schools could find a way to stop knocking each other out of the first place the Conestoga high school team also finished first in the state Conestoga high school students qualified for district region State and this year National band choir and Orchestra festivals 85 times we've had six Central League team championships including girls tennis field hockey boys soccer wrestling boys and girls swimming girls swimming team also won the district one Championship Conestoga also won two state championships so far girls tennis and boys tennis and our girls lacrosse team is currently in the state semifinals they'll play O and J tomorrow night at 5 pm at Upper Perkiomen high school so we wish them the best of luck we've also had very successful Club Sports Seasons the achievements of our students
013are so numerous we cannot list them all in one presentation we look forward to next year where we can return to recognizing many of these achievements as part monthly part of our highlights program during boards meetings tonight's final budget includes funds to support the heist High student enrollment that is protect projected to continue next year enrollment has hovered around 7 000 students for the past several years professional staffing increases alone due to high enrollment and increased programming needs in just the past five budget years number approximately 34.8 full-time equivalent professional employees for an estimated annual budget impact of about 3.5 million dollars the budget you are considering this evening maintains the program that has contributed to Student Success and next year's budget also includes funds for programs and enhancements including just to name a few
014employing eight District school psychologists formally supervised by the Chester County Intermediate Unit new science and technology courses at Conestoga including app development and organic chemistry the adoption of i-Ready Benchmark testing in grades three and four the inclusion of dual enrollment courses that will allow high school students to earn college credit for district courses they take right here at Conestoga our capital budget will include funds to to advance a much needed Athletics Fields project next to Conestoga as well as the start of a 10-year renovation plan designed to improve playgrounds at our elementary schools as we all know education is a people-driven profession delivering this program in 2023-24 will require a projected number of District staff members including 523 full-time equivalent teachers and professional staff 214 support staff and 32 administrators these Staffing numbers do not
015include other contracted Services needed across cost centers Recruitment and Retention of staff is becoming increasingly challenging for all school districts we're incredibly fortunate to work with so many dedicated and talented employees who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles through these past few years this budget includes the resources to support and sustain our employees who have given so much to the community we're fortunate in tesd to have an incredibly talented and dedicated staff working with our students whose achievements continue to reach remarkable Heights the educational services and the operation of our schools for our amazing students would not be possible without the ongoing generous support and firm commitment from our parents and the entire tesd community delivering the educational program in 2023-24 will cost an anticipated 173 million 568 056 Mr McDonald will provide a specific breakdown of
016the revenues and expenses thank you Dr gusick we're going to begin on page 105 with the presentation with the timeline that we've looked at at previous meetings this keeps us in line with the state requirement to pass a budget approved in the final form by June 30th and also set the tax rate and we will do that this evening at this meeting the timeline also requires that you have a budget on display we've had that since late May and we've advertised this meeting according to school code and the law 10 days prior where we would be adopting the budget this evening next slide is just a list of the meetings where we've discussed the budget and we've had separate budget board workshops in March and April the budget development and we reviewed this at our
017last finance committee meeting we made some changes most recently the capital funds transfer that we included in anticipated spending and the number that Dr gusick mentioned earlier than 173 million has been reduced by a million and we moved that million dollars down into contingency so it is still included in the budget you're approving this evening which is the authorized spend so in total in the authorized spending the 6 million Still Remains but the 5 million is part of the anticipated spending so what we've talked about in the past is the tax rate is addressing the anticipated spending not the authorized spending so the tax rate this evening is addressing the 5 million and not the 6 million the contractual agreements in place have salaries going up about 3.5 million Health Care projections we've talked about
018before the second look even though it was a flip between medical and RX remained pretty much the same and dental at seven percent we've included as we do each year the property tax revenue growth along with appeals and current collection rates and state subsidy at Transportation reduced by 385 000 due to the fact that we have less bus drivers and less buses on the road and we've included a reduction overall and expenses for the transportation budget in excess of 1.2 million to reflect that reduction in busing Esser Grant last year for that particular Grant 640 000 as far as Staffing additions go we did remove the elementary school security guards uh between the last two meetings that the board met and that was a reduction in total of about 265 000 to the budget I've
019included Capital source and use analysis that we discussed at previous finance committee meetings to show the impact of what we have in a short-term plan and the capital fund along with infrastructure that you'll see on line five in this particular chart there's there's two charts here one is without a new elementary school and one is with an elementary school so athletic field project that we've talked about in facilities and that length at Finance as well that were going in front of the township this week and the plan to do that particular project and a preliminary rough order magnitude budget about 28 million and then you'll see on line five we have infrastructure commitments are planned commitments of about 62 million if we inject a new Elementary School into this equation we're currently looking at a
020rough or magnitude projected budget of 55 million and that appears on live five of this particular chart and then you see the impact in the borrowing and the potential Bond issues on line three and what that looks like in the five years beyond the year that we're looking at this evening which is the 23-24. so the need for Capital funds transfer that were that are in this particular budget you'll see on line two you'll see that at six million dollars as a projection in the current year and also in the next year that you're in the 23 24 year in the budget we're looking at this evening beyond that it increases to 9 million and stays at 9 million for the next four years so under those particular assumptions you can see the borrowing over
021the next five years with this Capital plan is about 72 million which of course has an impact a Debt Service that is serviced through the general fund and you have to raise revenue to be able to pay for that debt service this budget development scenario we were asked to bring at the last finance committee meeting this shows in column B 3.5 percent tax increase which is in the resolution this evening for your consideration and a comparison to that is the limit of the board's authority of the Act One index which is a 4.1 percent and the deficits that result from those two at three point five percent is a little over 2.3 million and with the Act 1 index about 1.6 you'll see what those two tax rates produce in revenue on line three the
022revenue figure and the anticipated expenditure figure are also represented in the resolution that you'll be looking at this evening so in summary beginning on line one that's the budgeted Revenue not including the tax increase that's in resolution of about 4.6 million for total budget revenue of 171 million and change and that's reflected in the resolution they anticipated spending I mentioned earlier is what we think we're going to spend operationally in total and the difference between the those two numbers is the operational deficit at 2.3 million a little over 2.3 million the budgetaries are a contingency I mentioned earlier is 4 million previously three it was increased by a million with line 9 of the capital funds transfer and that's been uh the way we budgeted contingency for operations in the past one percent of the
023operating budget and then some stop gap for additional special education expenditures and then shortfalls in Revenue in total if you look at the anticipated spending along with fund balance commitments which are at 6.355 so you get that number by taking line five which is the deficit from the operational bus budget that must be funded and made whole by fund balance you cannot submit a budget to the state unless it's balanced so if you do have an operational deficit you have to have existing fund balance to be able to make that whole so that 2.3 million of fund balance will make that whole along with the four million dollars in contingency that's also funded through fund balance so that's six million 355 is also in the resolution as a fund balance allocation along with the authorized
024spending amount on line seven this is the resolution as it appears in your packet this evening and the red areas the red section of this is the are the numbers I just mentioned the 2324 budget at 171 million 212 585 and revenue fund balance allocation of 6 million 355 471 and authorize expenditures in total of 177 million 568 000 and 56 dollars the tax rate that's also included in the resolution that's represented here on the bottom of this particular slide is an increase of 3.5 percent which equates to 0.9049 mils which will make the total millage 26.7585 after the resolution has passed the tax impact of the resolution is represented on this particular slide on page 113. again you'll see the millage increase there in the revenue we mentioned earlier and then the average increase
025in column D to the homeowner in two different East Town is 235 dollars the next slide I put in for informational purposes we've had this in here for each of our presentations showing the difference between the different tax rates I mentioned earlier about the capital funds transfer in the 2223 you're at 6 million so at this point we've revised this projection for year end it's it's down a little bit as far as what we looked at the last finance committee meeting but if you want to do the math you can look on pay or look on line 11 you'll see in column B is the projection that we hope to have a little over 6 million to be able to transfer at the end of the year to the capital fund and we will continue
026to look at that going forward as we present the future numbers for 2223 when we button up the audit this summer and bring it back to you in the fall that concludes my formal presentation I'm just going to back up to the resolution in case there's any questions certainly welcome them now all right thank you both for for that do we have any questions or comments from board members at this time Mrs Berger I just want to go back to slide 108 and correct me if I'm incorrect um with this budget development we just at the last meeting changed the capital funds transfer to 5 million so wouldn't line two on page 108 need to say 5 million on there right I didn't make any changes to the slide it's how we presented at Finance
027so I hadn't made any changes to that okay and we could technically still move six million there's still one million in contingency that you could also move that's part of that plan though right yeah anything that is within the authorized spending umbrella can be moved could be four could be seven but we just left it at six because that's what we had presented in the past so that's still the you know recommended transfer six million okay Mr cantors Right and just to follow on I do appreciate uh you putting these two scenarios in and again these are just scenarios for for Capital sources and uses that we've talked about in previous meetings to say okay we've got a couple of significant capital projects that are slated one of them already approved who's by the board
028another in consideration the element the new elementary school coming up for next year and so these are just examples of numbers that were used in previous meetings to talk about okay how can we potentially uh fund you know adequately fund our Capital fund to be able to pay for both of those things and so these are really just illustrative purposes for illustrative purposes um you know and we can the the budget is somewhat of a separate question at that point in terms of how we're going to my understanding is how we're going to potentially assign that that money it all matters what's available at the end of any Year anyway I mean we may be in a scenario at the end of next year where we don't have the the extra Monies to be able
029to move to the the capital program maybe there's something that happens during the year we end up having to pay some additional uh funds for for something um you know that's not been unusual before where we've had to or some of those projections because we're trying to project all of our costs at least you know you know at least a year and a half into an advance so that becomes a difficult exercise this is just um to show what the board is considering at this point and at some level approved so that folks can understand the the funds that we're looking at from a capital expenditure standpoint going forward all right any other questions comments from board members this point okay if not um I was just wondering Mr McDonald if you could clarify on
030page 115 in case people are joining us for the first time with the projection for this year if you could explain um on lines one and line nine those um those variances and um so the total revenue from local sources and then the other expenditures where those came from this year and what we've done with the Administration has done for next year to take that into consideration sure on line one uh the revenue the majority of that variance between what we budgeted and what we're projecting is coming from interest income so at the time this 2223 budget was passed uh the interest rate was pretty low it was pretty much non-existent at that point and it's now upwards and four percent and so we're in excess of three million over what our interest income was
031anticipated along with uh transfer tax and interims those combined together or a little bit over what we budgeted originally and oftentimes this occurs with variable Revenue like interest income and transfer taxes so we did look at the interest rate we have bumped it up for this coming year we're hoping that that stays at that level because there's a pretty significant number in this budget you're looking at this evening for interest income so if we don't make that number we'll be talking about you know the reverse next year on The expenditure side several things there one of them the largest being the transportation budget I mentioned that earlier that we reduced the 2324 budget that you're looking at this evening by excess of 1.2 million so we have quite a considerable reduction in our anticipated expenditures
032in the transportation department because unfortunately we did not return to a normal busing complement in this current year so that's upwards of about 1.5 million on the transportation side and it addition we went through and surveyed and talked to all the department heads and all the school buildings and we looked at encumbrances and we went through that process as we do every year we did a little earlier this year so we're making a projection on what the final encumbrances are going to be along with the salary look at Staffing we knew we had additional professional staff we also have projected out some of the additional salaries from different departments and included those in salaries here which has a little bit higher number than what we budgeted so the combination of those things is what produces
033those variances between projection and budget and again anticipated that we're going to have be in the Black by about 6.2 million all right thank you for that sure um so if there's no more questions or comments from the board I'll turn to comments from the public if anyone has comments on the final budget resolution I'll ask you to come to the mic and say your name and Township of residence and comments are three minutes so make your comment all at once is there anyone who wants to make a comment on the budget all right seeing none uh I guess uh let's see we've already had our motion right so um go back to the board yes are there any comments or questions from the board before we yeah go ahead Mrs Berger uh Mr McDonald
034have we heard any additional information from the state in regards to funding and some I know they have not passed their budget yet but I'm wondering if we've heard any preliminary information that would change the numbers that we are considering tonight uh we haven't heard anything official from the state uh changing anything that we've presented to this point thank you all right anyone else have any questions before we have a roll call vote all right Mr McDonald can you conduct the roll call vote yes I'm going to begin with Dr Singh no it's Stone yes is burger no It's All Drain yes uh Miss TD yes respicioni yes I'm gonna go to Dr Allen on the phone if Dr Allen is with us that was a yes correct okay thank you uh vice president cantorsick
035yes president hotinski yes motion passes seven to two all right motion passes thank you very much next item on the tax bill is the tax bill Homestead Farmstead exclusion the act under consideration is that the board of school directors adopts the following resolution which pertains to the approval of the tax bill Homestead Farmstead exclusion for the 2023-2024 fiscal year do I have a motion so moved and in a second that's it Mrs audraine with a second all right so Mr McDonald could you provide further you're still over there for everybody further information to the discussion of the priority action just checking was that Mr cantorsk on the motion yeah I'm sorry okay okay all right thank you so the homestead Farmstead um exclusion resolution is something that we do each year it's part of the
036law that allows the reduction of taxes in an assessment uh to each person that applies to the county for Homestead exclusion the the official vote to take the money is doesn't have to happen but you do have to vote on the resolution that actually gives a break to these taxpayers so every taxpayer that has submitted an application have been approved at the county is eligible for this reduction so The Gaming revenue that is being collected at the state level gets parsed out and given out to schools and that number is in this particular resolution at 2 million six forty six eight eighty five approximately so it's Revenue neutral to the school it's not new Revenue so it comes in and then we reduce our property tax revenue by commensurate amount and that is shown up
037with each taxpayer that has a homestead exclusion approved in an amount as a reduction of assessed value and that amount is also in this resolution of about a little over 242 dollars there's um a process of an application it occurs every couple years so folks can continue to apply for this we we know now that not all the homesteads in the district people have applied for so we do try to promote this for some reason some folks don't want to apply that's their choice but we do promote this and we do encourage people to go apply for that for folks that have been here for a while you'll note that that 2.6 million is actually higher than it's been in the past for years since the beginning of this process it's been about 2.2 million
038so we've seen an increase in the last two years of The Gaming revenue from the state so that's encouraging and hopefully that'll continue to go up and allow us to give bigger breaks to the taxpayers in the school district all right thank you very much let's see are there any comments from the board on this item any comments from the public on the homestead exclusion if not coming back to the board all right and you'll do another roll call vote sure I'll begin again with Dr Singh yes Stone yes Miss Berger yes Ms audrain yes Miss TD yes piccione yes I'm gonna go to Dr Allen on the phone vice president cantorsick yes president hotinski yes Martian pass to 7-0 thank you for excuse me nine to zero sorry all righty um thank you and
039the next item will be the committee and Ambassador reports so we'll start with policy Mrs Stone thank you a policy committee met on May 23 2023 the following policies and regulations were discussed policy 4505 summer Workshops the policy was changed to include an updated administrative title as well as using the term employees policy 4525 guidance counselor district employment other than during the instructional day revisions include a title change to school counselors and Mental Health Specialists district employment other than during this instructional day as the policy will apply to those two groups of employees revisions were also made to clarify additional work time during the school year versus during summer months policy in regulation 4820 non-instructional Personnel work hours the policy was revised to indicate the use of the official system to record time worked each
040day and the subsequent process for payment the regulation will go into effect upon adoption of the policy policy and regulation 4910 teacher aids revisions included change entitled to para Educators para Educators may be either directly employed by the district or contracted Services the different types of para educators are listed in the regulation along with the qualifications for employment the regulation will go into effect upon adoption of the policy policy and regulation 5435 HIV AIDS life-threatening and communicable diseases revisions include a change entitled to life-threatening communicable diseases definitions removed from the policy to the regulation HIV AIDS remains a part of the curriculum as required by PA state code additional information was added to sections covering confidentiality of information exception to confidentiality of information attendance and employment General Provisions infection control counseling and testing and notification
041and media inquiries the regulation will go into effect upon adoption of the policy policy 9330 formulation of new and revision of existing board policies the policy was revised to include sections on process for adoption Amendment and repeal of board policies as well as process for making non-substantive revisions to board policies if the statement of a new policy or amendment to an existing policy approved at the conclusion of the first reading is subsequently materially revised prior to adoption the revision shall be considered the first reading and the revised statement shall be submitted for adoption at a subsequent meeting not less than seven calendar days later material are revised I have trouble with that term materially revised I don't have trouble with the term I have trouble saying the term means the revision is inconsistent with the
042underlying purpose of the proposed policy or proposed amendment to a policy capitalization was added to the list of non-substantive features the following regulations were updated to align with the revisions made to policy and regulation 80 90 regarding the breach of personal information notification act Amendment regulation 5225 Student Records regulation 8200 health information protection of privacy the regulations will go into effect immediately in addition non-substantive revisions were made to policy 8200 so it will be marked as reviewed and posted regulation 5311 eligibility for participation in school related activities the regulation will be updated to be in compliance with the new requirement related to home educated students eligibility to participate in the education program the regulation will go into effect immediately policy meetings for the 2023-2024 school year will be determined at a later date and posted
043on the district website and that concludes my report all right thank you next is diversity committee Dr Robert Singh the diversity committee has not met since the last board meeting and will resume its meetings in the new Academic Year and will be posted on the district's website all right thank you and next is finance with vice president Ken torson yes thank you technically the finance committee did has not met since our last board meeting because we met right before our last board meeting um and I did give a quick little update there uh and really the what we talked about most in our finance committee meeting was about the 2023-24 budget for which we just passed a resolution so I'm not going to go into detail about that we did and I want to clarify
044because I'm not can't remember where I mentioned it I didn't go back and watch the video so I will mention it again but we did have an update on the 2022-23 student services budget at the time of our last meeting Miss Roy gave that update and now believes that the budget will end up somewhere between 500 000 under or at budget um the meetings prior we had thought that we would actually might be 250 000 or so over budget um at the at our finance committee meeting Miss Roy explained that uh this budget in particular is difficult to assess because at the time we had some outstanding bills or outstanding uh outstanding bills coming from invoices coming from the cciu which we hadn't received yet those came in and so we were better able to
045assess where we stood in terms of our student services budget uh so with that uh and like I said we just talked about the budget the rest of the 23 24 budget the rest of the time and that ended up being our last Finance meeting for the school year uh our next Finance meeting will be posted on the website and all are welcome to attend probably sometime in August thank you thank you next is facilities Mrs Berger thank you president hotinski the facilities committee met on Thursday June 8th at 7 30 at the teal the committee reviewed the recommended bid packages for the summer of 2024 and the fee letter from Heckendorn and child's Architects for the design work preparation of construction documents coordination of the bid process and construction Administration Services the fees also
046include the Engineering Services structural design site civil engineering and facade engineering associated with these four bid packages the committee discussed and directed HSA to focus on further developing and designing the bid packages over the summer months with options for alternates the committee recommended the fee letter for the amount of 686 thousand four hundred dollars be placed on tonight's consent agenda you'll find it on pages 76 through 78 of the packet the committee received a memorandum from taranet Consulting and Technical Consulting Services regarding the bid received for the work associated with the diverse privately owned outside plant Network the bid came in 40 percent higher than the original estimate and had only one bidder on the project the district's consultant recommended rejecting the bid and rebid the project next school year the committee agreed with the
047recommendation and the letter is on page 79 and 80 of tonight's consent agenda Dr samandara presented the closed circuit TV security camera proposal for the elementary school parking lots this is the final phase of a multi-year project to upgrade existing and install new security cameras at all district buildings the Final Phase was redesigned and by doing so save the district over I believe a hundred and fifty thousand dollars without impacting the camera coverage and security the committee recommended the project which cost 160 thousand one hundred and fifty dollars be placed on the consent agenda for the full board vote it can be found on pages 81 and 82. the committee reviewed an initial design proposal for the playground work that is scheduled for the summer of 2024 at Valley Forge Elementary School the committee will
048continue to evaluate the proposal at the September facilities meeting next the committee received a presentation from the administration regarding the renewable energy resolution that was approved in November of 2021. the committee discussed the Hands-On learning opportunity of having Conestoga students involved in conducting an environmental impact study at one District building or school an external professional resource would also be engaged to execute their own environmental impact audit at the same building upon completion of the audits the students would then work with the external professional resource to compare the audit findings as well as identify any areas for potential Improvement we had a Community member comment that there are some pre-designed templates for specific types of environmental audits and suggested that a review of what was available would help to determine which audit tool should be used
049lastly the committee was presented with information regarding the challenges of converting a commercial property into an elementary school ultimately if a commercial property was purchased for a new Elementary School site it would need to be torn down completely please note that no just get decision has been made regarding a new Elementary School and I also want to point out that the full video of the meeting is posted on the district website for you to watch it's one of our longer meetings it's a took over two and a half hours because we had a lot to discuss but I encourage everyone to watch there was a lot of detail this is just a summarization of what took place at that meeting we that was our last facilities meeting of this school year we have not posted
050new meetings yet for the next school year but please stay tuned we will have those on the district website before the start of the new school year and that concludes my report all right thank you next we have education committee Mrs Didi thank you the education committee has not met since our last meeting but we will look forward to meeting at the beginning of September and we will post that date on our district calendar and welcome all who are interested in our topics thank you thank you ad hoc legislative committee Mrs audreen thank you president hodinsky um the ad hoc legislative committee has not met there's been some recent development in the House of Representatives the State House Representatives house bill um 1-011 or House Bill 1100 which passed the house and will be Advanced
051to the Senate this particular bill has made changes to the tax property tax and rent rebate program to increase the amount to forty five thousand dollars for homeowners and forty five thousand dollars to renters with these new proposed limits an additional 173 000 individuals will qualify for this property tax and rent rebate discount the amount will increase the rebate from 650 dollars maximum rebate to one thousand dollars maximum rebate this proposal also includes cost of living adjustments so that will occur in future years and that's all I have to report and we'll keep watching and following in the new year thank you thank you that's very good news to hear about the tax rebate and there is information on that rebate on the school district website I think under the business office tab um so
052we encourage you to apply for that if you if you qualify next is ad hoc public information Dr Yolanda Allen information committee has not met since our last meeting and we look forward to our meeting uh in the call thank you all right thank you and Intermediate Unit technical school report Mrs Stone the IU board has not met since our last meeting but um the final meeting of this fiscal year will be next Wednesday June 21st at 7 30 pm at the Educational Services Center in Downingtown and all in by are invited to attend that'll be my my last meeting and then Mrs piccioni will start her tenure all right thank you thank you for your service in that position this is Stone I know it's a quite a commute usually to to get to
053those meetings uh let's see so that concludes our committee and Ambassador reports um next item would be other actions under consideration there are none this evening so we are at item 11 public participation from District residents and District taxpayers regarding non-agenda matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board so if there are people who would like to make a comment on a non-agenda item if you can come to the mic state your name and your Township of residence and remember comments are three minutes and please say your whole comment at once thank you thank you very much my name is John ramlo r-a-h-m-l-o-w for the notes I live in Chesterbrook and I've been a resident of tradition for 22 years and I'm here to comment about the potential
054for a new Elementary School um I did review the presentation it was very well done so thank you for putting that out there I did have some concerns however when I watched the presentation uh at worst the township would be going into barely into the yellow which was noted as minimal if any uh impact on the students and the education they received and with that minimal impact we were looking at a potential of 55 million dollar cost to build a new school to alleviate a minimal impact along with an additional close to seven million dollars a year in operating costs that seems to be a very heavy cost to put on the residents of tradition East Town to alleviate what is considered according to the projections a minimal impact to the students now at the
055beginning we heard of The Amazing accomplishments of the students and I am a proud resident of te I will admit I went to Radnor so there is a little bit of conflict there but what te has been doing is amazing and I I really do applaud that and I appreciate all of the efforts of everybody on this board and what you're doing for the township and its residents but I do look at the cost and the benefit and what is the issue that needs to be overcome and the cost does seem to be significantly greater than the proposed or projected impact on the students now obviously that could change but I'm just going based on the information that was in that presentation so my first comment is regarding that overall need for a sixth Elementary
056School my second is on the proposal to put one on Jefferson Lane now I live in Mountain View and Mountain View is off of Jefferson Lane it's one of four housing developments on a quarter mile cul-de-sac and we already have significant amount of thank you we already have a significant amount of traffic on that road and I didn't see any impact studies on the traffic of going through as a resident of Chesterbrook I see the schools going through Valley Forge Middle School we have the schools for the children going to Valley Forge Elementary we have the buses that are going to Wilson Park so we have a very significant amount of traffic related to schools already and if we placed another school there without a traffic impact study we can't really see what's there finally
057that site is a beautiful little part of a park that people have there and I think the cost to develop there would be above what is projected because of the amount of grading that would need to be done and I also feel there are safety issues with that location due the location of the woods and the creek at the bottom and children could potentially wander down into those woods Unfortunately they could come to harm because of the animals and other things there so I again appreciate all of the efforts of everybody here on the board and I just wanted to State my concerns about the cost and also that particular location thank you all right thank you very much um do you want to make a couple comments I just would like to dress a
058few things that you mentioned uh and uh just to illustrate or flesh out a little bit more of the conversation or at least what I thought I heard you say the slide that you referred to about mental minimal impact is if we redistricted equally across each of the elementary schools um and that means in all the schools it means that we would be having to make decisions regarding programming and Science and double booking other areas it isn't as you say insurmountable it sometimes happens in sep in one or several schools it would be happening in every school but also that the enrollment is one of several drivers that particular slide is indifferent to the number of classrooms that are needed for intense instruction for certain students and that need has been rising so as that
059rises it may move us from yellow to red or yellow to Orange to red and the other factor is full day kindergarten and there are many calls for full day kindergarten and that would simply be impossible without the decision to add an elementary school I appreciate your respectful comments on the achievements of te I share that I share that Pride with respect to traffic and safety developments that's right they aren't in place at the moment there are several sites under consideration and that gets fleshed out during the Land Development and approvals process after a site selected but there would be a detailed traffic study as well as safety Ingress egress and things that would be necessary for whatever site eventually is selected but I thank you for your for your comment yeah I thank you
060as well and we will be revisiting this in the fall we get new enrollment numbers in the fall so as soon as we get back and have those opening day numbers we'll have a an idea of what the situation looks like and we'll be taking it back up in the fall good evening Jay Joyce from two different and I too congratulate the board the school system on all the achievements that we were just heard about previously the last time we were together I remind you that last month was also Jewish month and despite the fact that Jews to this day have more hate crimes committed against them than all other groups combined they prosper Ian Rowe a black man who's co-founder of vertex academies tells us that if you say there is institutional racism and
061systemic racism then I have to tell you there is another kind of racism and that is surmountable racism the Jews prove that point in his schools there are not victims only architects of their own life Coleman Hughes and other black man offers the following advice for young blacks there are racists out there but they are few and far between they will not be the reason you are not successful they are so far the exception to the rule of who you will meet your life is in your own hands in the past things were completely different there was a collar line that could not be crossed today I can go to a white Asian Hispanic friend or employer there's nothing stopping me those barriers are not here today and is a disservice to the people who
062were stopped in the past to pretend that those barriers still exist even the hucksters will try to convince you of that for reasons of their own emotions or psychology today I look at the T website and under local history the only thing I see is that Berwyn was segregated in 1930. full stop it's as though we have not moved at all I attend diversity meetings and listen to our students and hear all the woke words like oppression white supremacy White Privilege there are white papers out there from places like Harvard telling us the Dei does not work okay oops I propose I propose books that support that narrative that we have in our libraries and they get returned after five months unread I bring these things up and it doesn't seem to go anywhere we
063were all in this room because we want to make things better or else we wouldn't be here we can't do that if we only have a limited narrative like Berwin being segregated in 1930 full stop I urge you to take into account some of these voices that I'm talking about Coleman Hughes John McWater Roland Friar Walter Williams Jason Riley Glenn lagran Wilfred Riley Tim Scott Thomas soul and many many many more and include them in the conversation because it seems like we have just one side of the of the of the conversation going on with Dei all right so let's take action and offer our our young a message as to how we can be successful without being opposed to victimhood I thank you for your time you have any remaining speakers on non-agenda items
064all right seeing none okay then uh we'll public comment period is the point in the meeting when we make any announcements required by the Pennsylvania Sunshine act our solicitor this evening is Mr Ken Roos and he will make any required announcements Mr Roos thank you um first I did want to note that the information school board meetings the executive sessions were actually held on May 31st and June 8th not there was no executive session today on June 12th May 31st was regarding Personnel June 8th was the annual report of the school safety and security coordinator required by section 1309 B of the Pennsylvania school code um so we have future meetings are on Monday August 28th will be our next regular board meeting at 7 30 pm at Conestoga high school here 200 Irish Road
065in Berwyn and the following month in September will be Tuesday September 26th again here at Conestoga high school are there any general announcements or any announcements from the board Mrs Berger not so much an announcement but just a general comment since we passed the budget tonight I just would like number one I want to thank the community for all their input and attending our finance meetings and our budget workshops I also want to thank my fellow board members for your due diligence in really considering all of the projects that we have currently in the shoot and potentially in the future as as the facilities chair for the past I think it's been six years I you know I recognize and I stated at our last meeting that I'm always torn because I know that the
066projects that we have proposed are necessary and we do a very good job of evaluating what our needs are both from an interest infrastructure perspective as well as any new construction projects with that being said with tonight's passing of this budget I would like to just um encourage each of my fellow board members to potentially in the fall if we could examine maybe the fees that are charged in our elective classes at the high school in the program of studies for the 2024-2025 school year the budget process for next year's budget for the for the 20 23 24 process for the 24-25 budget starts after the administration puts together evaluates and goes to print for the program of studies so that happens earlier than when we actually pass a budget so I'd like to see
067if we could maybe make that part of a discussion about whether or not we can waive those fees and what I'm talking about are not um field trip fees or things like that I'm talking about just at the high school for things like family consumer science whether it might be a 15 fee for supplies things like that um I think it would be helpful to remove any Financial barriers and also just that families wouldn't have to ask for assistance in order or they would potentially be avoiding taking certain classes because there might be a supply fee there I know we do a good job in covering those fees when we're able to identify students that might need some assistance but I'd like to see if you know what what is the potential budget impact now
068that we've passed this budget so additionally I also wanted to continue to express my frustration with the state and their inability to pass a budget before the school board has to it is uh you know we know that there's a surplus we know what's proposed they could certainly adjust their budget calendar so that you the local taxpayer don't have to take on a burden of an increase in taxes because your local school board is unclear as to the exact amount that they're getting from the state we may have been able to have a unanimous vote tonight it could have been 2.9 percent if we had known what the state was going to give us definitively and I I am hoping that in the um next year or two that the state legislature changes their budget
069process and timeline so that local school boards can really pass budgets that reflect the funding that they're getting from the state in advance thank you other announcements comments from board members all right then seeing none I we are done with our business for this evening we have correspondences listed on page 117 of the agenda if you are interested you can find it there and otherwise we just need a motion to adjourn do I have a motion so moved and a second all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed signify by saying nay all right the eyes have it motion passes 9-0 and we are adjourned thank you very much and we look forward to seeing you in August foreign